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The Ultimate SSG Tier List - Tools for Modern Webs

4 min read

The Philosophy of Static

Dynamic sites (WordPress) query a database every time a user visits. This is slow and insecure. Static sites (SSG) compile your content once on your laptop. The result is pure HTML/CSS.

  • Speed: Instant load times.
  • Security: There is no database to hack.
  • Cost: $0. Hosted on CDNs like Cloudflare Pages.

1. The “Modern King” 👑

Astro

  • Language: JavaScript / TypeScript
  • Best For: Portfolios, Marketing Sites, High-Performance Blogs.

Astro is currently the industry favorite. Its “Island Architecture” means it ships Zero JavaScript to the browser by default, unless you specifically ask for an interactive component.

  • Feature: You can write components in React, Vue, and Svelte in the same project.
  • Vibe: Bleeding edge, extremely fast, developer-friendly.
npm create astro@latest

2. The “Digital Garden” 🧠

Quartz (v4)

  • Language: TypeScript

  • Best For: Personal Wikis, Knowledge Graphs, Second Brains.

You are using this right now. Quartz is unique because it isn’t designed for “Blog Posts”—it’s designed for Linked Thought. It parses Obsidian vaults directly.

  • Feature: Automatic Backlinks, Graph View, and Pop-over previews.

  • Vibe: Academic, Hacker, interconnected.

Bash

npm create quartz@latest

3. The “Speed Demon” ⚡

Hugo

  • Language: Go (Golang)

  • Best For: Massive sites (500+ pages), Documentation, News sites.

Hugo is a single binary. It has no dependencies (no node_modules). It compiles 10,000 pages in less than 1 second. It is the engine behind huge sites like Kubernetes docs and Smashing Magazine.

  • Feature: Shortcodes and insane build speed.

  • Vibe: Industrial strength, rigid, “it just works.”

Bash

sudo dnf install hugo
hugo new site myblog

4. The “Enterprise Standard” 🏢

Next.js (Static Export)

  • Language: React / TypeScript

  • Best For: Web Apps that might become dynamic later.

Next.js is a full-stack framework, but output: 'export' turns it into an SSG. If you want to get hired as a Frontend Dev, this is the most hireable skill on this list.

  • Feature: The massive React ecosystem.

  • Vibe: Professional, heavy, corporate.

Bash

npx create-next-app@latest

5. The “Documentation Standard” 📘

MkDocs (Material Theme)

  • Language: Python

  • Best For: Technical Manuals, Library Documentation, Project Wikis.

If you just want to write Markdown and have a search bar, this is the winner. The “Material for MkDocs” theme is so good it’s used by Google and AWS.

  • Feature: Excellent search, admonitions (callout boxes), and instant setup.

  • Vibe: Clean, functional, utilitarian.

Bash

pip install mkdocs-material
mkdocs new my-project

6. The “Old Reliable” 👴

Jekyll

  • Language: Ruby

  • Best For: GitHub Pages integration.

The grandfather of SSGs. It powers GitHub Pages natively. If you push a _config.yml to GitHub, it builds automatically without a CI/CD workflow file.

  • Feature: Zero-config deployment on GitHub.

  • Vibe: Classic, stable, slowing down.

Bash

gem install jekyll bundler
jekyll new my-blog

7. The “Purist” 🛡️

Zola

  • Language: Rust

  • Best For: Rust developers, Minimalists.

Zola is the Rust answer to Hugo. It is a single binary, incredibly fast, and uses the Tera templating engine (similar to Jinja2/Python).

  • Feature: Strict and robust. No plugins (everything is built-in).

  • Vibe: Efficient, safe, uncompromising.

Bash

sudo dnf install zola
zola init my-blog

8. The “Minimalist” 🎨

Eleventy (11ty)

  • Language: JavaScript (Node)

  • Best For: Web Designers, Creative Blogs.

Eleventy doesn’t force a framework on you. It just compiles templates. You can use Nunjucks, Liquid, Handlebars, or pure HTML.

  • Feature: Flexible. It doesn’t assume you want to use React.

  • Vibe: Artsy, lightweight, simple.

Bash

npm install -g @11ty/eleventy
echo '# Hello' > index.md
eleventy

🏁 The Decision Matrix (Summary)

Depending on your persona, here is what you should choose:

CategoryThe Best ToolWhy?
For The HackerQuartzYou live in Obsidian. You want a graph view. You want to show how you think.
For The Job SeekerNext.jsIt proves you know React, which is what 80% of companies are hiring for.
For The WriterAstroThe best writing experience. Markdown support is top-tier. Fast website performance.
For The DevOps EngineerHugoNo dependencies to break. Single binary. Fast CI/CD pipelines.
For The PythonistaMkDocsYou already have Python installed. The Material theme is beautiful out of the box.
For The RustaceanZolaYou love Rust. You hate node_modules. You want type safety.

Graph View